Vent: That moment my fitness tracker data got used against me in Chicago

I was applying for life insurance last fall and got denied because a third party bought my step count and sleep data from my old Fitbit. Turns out the insurer used it to flag me as high risk even though I'm perfectly healthy. Has anyone else had their wearable data come back to bite them like this?

3 comments

3 Comments

brianm661mo ago

Saw a story on NPR a few months back about this exact thing. They interviewed a guy whose insurance went up 20% just because his heart rate data showed he walked slower than average (maybe he just takes his time, you know?). The problem is these companies buy your data without asking, then use it to ding you even if you're actually fine. I think the big thing people don't realize is that "anonymized" data gets re-identified pretty easily, especially with time stamps and step counts from specific locations. It's a total joke how little control we have over this stuff once we sync a device.

davidkim1mo ago

Damn, that NPR story... I used to think people were just being paranoid about this stuff. Like who cares if some fitness app knows my steps, right? But hearing how they can tie that back to you and actually raise your insurance rates... that changed my mind completely. Makes me wanna throw my smartwatch in a drawer honestly.

ivan7741mo ago

@brianm66 nailed it, that 20% jump for walking slower is exactly the kind of thing that scares me.